CU-Boulder grad to bike 3,000 miles for Graves' disease

Michaela Cui poses on the University of Colorado campus Wednesday. Cui will be graduating with an aerospace engineering degree, then biking 3,000 miles to bring awareness to Graves' disease. To follow her trip from Alaska to San Francisco, visit www.greaterthangraves.com.
(
Chancey Bush
)

If you go

What: University of Colorado campus graduation ceremony

When: 8:30 a.m. Friday, but CU officials are recommending early arrival because the crowd is projected to be 20,000. The stadium gates will open at 7 a.m.

Where: Folsom Field, regardless of weather

Security: Guests are asked not to bring large purses or bags to the ceremony. People entering the stadium may be subject to a search.

Parking: Most of the available parking for the ceremony will be in lots off Regent Drive, just south of Colorado Avenue, and parking attendants will be on hand to direct people to the lots. Commencement planners encourage people to consider alternatives to driving.

Closure: The access road called Stadium Drive, north of the Dal Ward Athletic Center, and Pleasant Street east of Old Main will be closed to all traffic between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. for the graduation procession.

Other information: No tickets are required for the ceremony.

CU commencement

The Daily Camera continues its coverage of the University of Colorado's spring commencement in print and online:

Friday: Full list of spring graduates, profiles and trend stories.

Saturday: Stories and photos from the Folsom Field commencement ceremony.

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Online: Live updates on DailyCamera.com on Friday and full coverage via Twitter; track hashtag #cugrad11 to follow the event in real time -- or, if you're there, contribute your own tweets.

Michaela Cui dropped from 120 to 85 pounds during her junior year at the University of Colorado, and doctors lectured her about anorexia.

But her appetite was insatiable, and she had been eating more than normal.

Cui started to notice other signals that, at first, she mistook for being depressed or homesick. She was losing interest in her engineering coursework and projects. She was feeling down, she isolated herself from others and she was becoming abnormally sore and exhausted from workouts.

"I hit a wall," she said. "I knew something wasn't right."

Finally, in her senior year, results from a thyroid test revealed her diagnosis: Graves' disease, an auto-immune disorder marked by an overactive thyroid. With the disease under control, she decided to continue on her degree track without taking time off school.

On Friday, Cui will be among the thousands graduating from CU.

The university will confer 5,897 degrees at its campuswide commencement ceremony. Fellow students and those who have worked alongside Cui in the College of Engineering and Applied Science say her work ethic and resilience have been an inspiration.

Cui, the daughter of a pilot, is interested in entering the green aircraft industry. But first, she'll be biking 3,000 miles -- from Anchorage to San Francisco -- starting June 1 to raise awareness about the disease.

She expects the trip will take 45 days. Money raised will benefit the Graves' Disease and Thyroid Foundation.

More than 3 million people in the United States have Graves' disease, and women are much more likely to be affected.

Cui said she's looking forward to getting her adrenaline flowing and is excited to be healthy enough to bike the route, which will take her and two friends between 50 and 110 miles a day. Just a year ago, her heart rate was reaching 215 beats per minute on a light jog.

"I'm ready to challenge myself again," she said.

Cui's friends Chris Doudna and Ben Weerts are joining her on the trip, and her mother, Debra Cui, will be driving the route in a support vehicle.

Weerts said that when Cui told him about the charity bike ride, he didn't want to pass it up.

"My options at that point were to find another internship for the summer or go on a Graves' disease awareness bike ride of epic proportions," he said. "The choice was obvious."

Doudna, a graduating senior in mechanical engineering, said he witnessed Cui's transformation when she was diagnosed.

"I saw her will and determination come out in full force," he said. "When she asked if I would go on the ride with her, I hesitantly agreed. Since then, her drive and amazing attitude pushed me to help out with the ride more and more."

Trudy Schwartz, a senior instructor and lab manager for the Electronics and Instrumentation Lab, has worked with Cui for the past few years.

Schwartz said Cui was the electronics lead on her senior project to rebuild a hybrid engine system for small radio-controlled aircraft. She was instrumental in the design of the electronics for the glow plug and remote-start capability that will allow the internal combustion engine to be started in flight when the plane is already running on its electric engine.

A remote-start capability could be useful to the entire radio-controlled aircraft field because it is safer than manually starting the engine, even when the plane is on the ground, Schwartz said.

Cui worked as a lab assistant for Schwartz all the way through the last week of classes.

"Michaela only found out about her illness in the middle of her senior year, which is a stressful and extremely busy time for all our students," Schwartz said. "She handled her illness so well that most of her classmates and co-workers did not even realize all that she was going through. She is truly an inspiration."

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